Rhinoplasty is an operation to alter the shape of your nose. It can either make the nose smaller (reduction rhinoplasty) or larger and give it more bulk (augmentation rhinoplasty).

Reduction rhinoplasty
The surgeon will usually make cuts inside the nostrils to reach the bone and cartilage. Sometimes, a cut is also made across the skin between the nostrils (the columella) and this technique is called ‘open rhinoplasty’. Some of the bone and cartilage will be removed or rearranged to achieve the shape agreed upon. The skin over the nose won’t be touched – it will shrink down to its new shape. It may be necessary to also make the nostrils smaller to keep the features in proportion. The surgeon will need to make cuts in the skin of your nostrils to do this, which will leave fine scars on each side.

Augmentation rhinoplasty
If you’re having the nose made larger or given more bulk, the surgeon may make a cut inside or between the nostrils and reshape the bone and cartilage. Extra bone or cartilage (a graft) may be used to build up the nose. This can come from the ears or ribs, and bone from the back of the elbow, the skull or hip bone. Sometimes artificial implants are used instead.

A non-surgical procedure is also available where defects are corrected and modified by means of subcutaneous injections of biologically inert fillers but the results tend to be relatively transitory,